use-icon

HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.

Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.

guide to the dictionary

use-icon

THE USAGE PANEL

The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.

The Panelists

open-icon

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.

scroll-icon

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG

The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.

100-words-icon

See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series!

Find out more!

open-icon

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com

pick·up (pĭkŭp)
Share:
n.
1.
a. The act or process of picking up: the pickup and delivery of farm produce.
b. Sports The act of striking or fielding a ball after it has touched the ground: a good pickup and throw from third base.
c. Capacity for acceleration: a sports car with good pickup.
d. Informal An improvement in condition or activity: a pickup in sales.
e. Slang An arrest by a law enforcement officer.
2. One that is picked up, especially:
a. Passengers or freight: Taxi drivers expect good tips from airport pickups.
b. Informal A hitchhiker.
c. Slang A stranger with whom casual acquaintance is made, usually in anticipation of sexual relations.
3. Accounting A balance brought forward.
4. Previous journalistic copy to which succeeding copy is added.
5. Music See upbeat.
6. One that picks up, especially:
a. A pickup truck.
b. The rotary rake on a piece of machinery, such as a harvester, that picks up windrowed hay or straw.
7. Electronics
a. A transducer that converts vibrations, as of a phonograph needle or guitar string, into electrical impulses for subsequent conversion into sound.
b. The tone arm of a record player.
8.
a. The reception of light or sound waves for conversion to electrical impulses.
b. The apparatus used for such reception.
c. A telecast originating outside a studio.
d. The apparatus for transmitting a broadcast from an outside place to the broadcasting station.
adj.
Being, relating to, or involving a group of people assembled informally for a temporary purpose: a pickup orchestra; a pickup baseball game.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.